Roy Lichtenstein Foundation announces the creation of two endowed professorships at The Ohio State University

Dorothy Lichtenstein and the Board of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, in partnership with The Ohio State University, are pleased to announce that the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has permanently endowed two high-level named chairs at the university.

Two $3 million endowments will support the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Endowed Chair of Art History and the Roy Lichtenstein Endowed Chair of Studio Art.

In making these gifts, Dorothy Lichtenstein said: “For a number of years, Roy’s family and the foundation have been looking for the most promising way to enhance the Ohio State program. Happily, as the Ohio State Arts District begins to take shape and the Columbus art and museum scene expands, we think these professorships can build on this momentum. For us, it is ‘Right Time – Right Place.’”

“We are delighted and honored to carry forward the creative spirit and intellectual inquiry of alumnus and world-renowned artist Roy Lichtenstein,” said Ohio State President Michael V. Drake. “These complementary chairs will elevate the arts and humanities across the university, broadening horizons for students and faculty for years to come.”

David Manderscheid, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, also recognized the magnitude of the gift. “These positions ensure that generations of students and faculty in our college will be encouraged to experiment, explore and reinterpret American modernism in perpetuity, through an ever-changing lens. Our faculty is energized by this extraordinary gift and is enthusiastically looking forward t­­o adding two senior scholars to their departments.”

The university is now planning a national search for distinguished candidates. The endowments will serve to recognize the formative influence Ohio State played in the development of the talent and aesthetic interests of Roy Lichtenstein. The artist matriculated into Ohio State’s College of Education, School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1940. He received his BFA in 1946 and his MFA in 1949. He also taught studio courses in the School of Fine and Applied Arts between 1946 and 1951.

“It’s wonderful that this endowed chair has been created at just this moment. The History of Art Department is launching a number of new initiatives — including an MA program in Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice — with which we hope the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Endowed Chair of Art History will play a significant role,” said Lisa Florman, chair of the Department of Art History.

Rebecca Harvey, chair of the Department of Art, shared her colleagues’ enthusiasm. “We are thrilled and delighted the Department of Art will be home to the Roy Lichtenstein Endowed Chair of Studio Art. Roy was an artist ahead of his time, and we look forward to bringing in an artist whose works bring a similar mixture of science and aesthetics to a new generation, inserting and injecting new technologies and modes of visual expression to carry the synthesis forward.”

Jack Cowart, executive director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, continued: “One of the foundation’s core missions concerns expanding art experiences and scholarship. The board of the foundation has seized upon this opportunity at Ohio State to fund this vision and share our enthusiasm. We are pleased that new art and new research are now Ohio State’s legacies strengthened by Roy Lichtenstein’s Foundation and his family.”

During his lifetime, Roy Lichtenstein and, subsequently, Dorothy Lichtenstein, supported various university fellowships, projects and publications. The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation continues this support and expansion of the capabilities of the art history and fine arts departments at this distinguished, public land-grant university. The foundation hopes that a significant number of Ohio State undergraduate and graduate students will further benefit from the enhanced capabilities in the art history and studio arts curricula, and its distinguished professors and teaching artists.